Microsoft says it is directly gaining from the subdued reaction to Apple’s newest MacBook Pros.
In a blog post issued Monday, the Windows maker said that November was its “best month ever for consumer Surface sales,” and that “more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before.”
The company even cites “the disappointment of the new MacBook Pro – especially among professionals” as a reason for the converts to its high-end hybrid PCs, which include the Surface Pro 4 tablet, Surface Book laptop, and Surface Studio desktop. Such direct language falls in line with the handful of Apple-attacking advertisements Microsoft has launched in recent months.
The notion of the MacBook Pro having a less-than-enthusiastic reaction among hardcore PC users may not be totally out of line, though. Shortly after the Pro launched, a number of would-be users expressed disappointment in what they saw as a notebook that sacrificed too many high-level features for design purposes.
That said, Microsoft did not disclose specific unit sales for Surface PCs over the period, per usual. There's probably a reason for that.
The most recent PC sales data from analyst firm Gartner, for instance, said that while Apple's market share had declined significantly year-over-year, it was still the fifth biggest seller of PCs worldwide. Microsoft, meanwhile, was not listed.
That was before Apple released the new MacBook Pro models, too. Though the complaints toward the new notebooks have been loud, Apple marketing boss Phil Schiller said in November that early online orders for the new MacBook Pro were more numerous than "any other pro notebook before."
All of this is to say that Mac sales, in all likelihood, continue to dwarf Surface sales overall. But if Microsoft is to be believed, it may be gaining at least a little bit of momentum among new PC buyers.
